Kodiak boats have nowhere legal to store hazardous waste

Kodiak's boat and marine businesses produce used antifreeze and hydraulic oil year-round. The borough collects hazardous waste twice a year. In between, there is no place on the island legally able to hold it.

The gap surfaced when the city's Port and Harbors Advisory Board asked the Kodiak Island Borough's Solid Waste Advisory Board for somewhere to store those materials between collection events. The City of Kodiak does not hold the permits to store commercial quantities itself.

Mayor Scott Arndt said it was not the borough's problem to solve. The borough brings in a contractor that local businesses deal with directly at disposal events, he said, and the city could hire its own contractor or work with the borough's the same way.

Board members agreed the responsibility sits with the city, but read the situation as evidence of a wider hole in how the island handles solid waste — one the borough's own management plan, still in development, does not address. They asked the borough manager to look for storage options, and for alternatives if none exist.